The present invention relates to a disk control apparatus which controls video and audio data being continuously input through a digital interface, so as to be recordable and reproducible onto and from a disk apparatus such as a hard disk device, and a disk apparatus using the disk control apparatus.
In recent years, disk apparatuses such as magnetic disk devices and optical disk devices have been rapidly improving in performance such as storage capacity and data transfer speed.
The performance improvement of the hard disk devices is particularly remarkable, and the hard disk devices have been more frequently used for recording and reproducing of video and audio data.
On the other hand, the development of digital interfaces has advanced, so that digital interfaces of the IEEE 1394 standard have become standard equipment on digital VCR apparatuses (digital video cassette recording apparatuses). The IEEE 1394 standard defines an isochronous transmission mode to continuously transmit digital video and audio data.
In the transmission mode using the IEEE 1394 interface, for example, IEC61883 defines a transmission mode for video and audio data of a digital VCR format (hereinafter, abbreviated as DV format).
Recently, an edit system has been proposed in which a digital VCR apparatus and a video and audio data recording apparatus incorporating a hard disk device are connected by an IEEE 1394 interface.
In this edit system, the following edit processing is performed:
(1) video and audio data to be edited are transferred from the digital VCR apparatus to the video and audio data recording apparatus through the IEEE 1394 interface, and the transferred data are recorded onto the hard disk device;
(2) the video and audio data recorded on the hard disk device are reproduced, and video scenes to be edited are searched for;
(3) necessary video scenes are selected from among the searched video scenes, and the order in which the video scenes are reproduced is decided; and
(4) the video scenes are reproduced in the decided order by the video and audio data recording apparatus, and the reproduced video scenes are recorded by the digital VCR apparatus.
In the edit processing as described above, continuous video scenes shot in one shooting operation are frequently performed by selecting as one unit. When necessary video scenes are searched for from among video and audio data recorded on tape by use of a digital VCR apparatus, it is necessary to make selection while reproducing the video and audio data, so that it takes time for selecting video scenes.
To solve this problem, recent video and audio data recording apparatuses using disk apparatuses such as hard disk devices have a function to automatically detect information such as points where video scenes change (scene change points) when video and audio data are recorded onto the disk apparatus, and register the information as index information. As described above, in the field of video and audio data recording apparatuses, a technology with which edit processing in units of video scenes can be easily performed has been proposed.
However, according to the above-mentioned edit function of the conventional disk apparatus, although editing by selecting video and audio data in units of video scenes can be easily performed, the following operations cannot be easily performed: editing by erasing only part of the video and audio data in a recorded video scene; and editing by overwriting (replacing) recorded video and audio data with externally input video and audio data.
An object of the present invention is to provide a disk control apparatus capable of, solving the above-mentioned problems, easily thereby to perform edit processing, even after overwriting of video and audio data recorded on a disk apparatus by inputting video and audio data from external source and even after erasing only a part of video and audio data, and provide a disk apparatus using the disk control apparatus.
To solve the above-mentioned object, a disk control apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
an interface unit for receiving externally input video and audio data;
an index generation unit for generating index information by analyzing the video and audio data received by the interface unit;
an index information management unit for managing the index information generated by the index generation unit;
a data recording and reproducing unit for writing and reading the video and audio data received by the interface unit onto and from a disk apparatus; and
a video and audio data management unit for managing a recording area of the disk apparatus by dividing the recording area into a recorded area in which video and audio data have already been recorded and an unrecorded area in which no video and audio data is recorded.
When the recorded area is overwritten with different video and audio data, the index information generation unit generates index information corresponding to the video and audio data in the overwritten area and index information corresponding to video and audio data in other areas separated by the video and audio data in the overwritten area.
The disk control apparatus according to the present invention structured as described above is capable of easily performing edit processing on recorded video and audio data even after part of the video and audio data recorded on the disk apparatus is erased and after the video and audio data are replaced with external video and audio data.
A disk control apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention comprises:
an interface unit for receiving externally input video and audio data;
a data recording and reproducing unit for writing and reading the video and audio data received by the interface unit onto and from a disk apparatus; and
a video and audio data management unit for managing a recording area of the disk apparatus by dividing the recording area into a recorded area in which video and audio data have already been recorded and an unrecorded area in which no video and audio data is recorded.
In response to an external block erasure request, the video and audio data management unit erases an area requested to be erased from the recorded area, adds the area requested to be erased to the unrecorded area, and assigns continuous logical addresses to the video and audio data in the recorded area.
The disk control apparatus according to the present invention structured as described above is capable of easily performing edit processing on recorded video and audio data even after a block is erased, in response to an external request, from the video and audio data recorded on the disk apparatus.
A disk apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
an interface unit for receiving externally input video and audio data;
an index generation unit for generating index information by analyzing the video and audio data received by the interface unit;
an index information management unit for managing the index information generated by the index generation unit;
a data recording and reproducing unit for writing and reading the video and audio data received by the interface unit onto and from a disk; and
a video and audio data management unit for managing a recording area of the disk by dividing the recording area into a recorded area in which video and audio data have already been recorded and an unrecorded area in which no video and audio data is recorded.
When the recorded area is overwritten with different video and audio data, the index information generation unit generates index information corresponding to the video and audio data in the overwritten area, and index information corresponding to video and audio data in other areas separated by the video and audio data in the overwritten area.
The disk apparatus according to the present invention structured as described above is capable of easily performing edit processing on recorded video and audio data even after part of the video and audio data recorded on the disk is erased and after the video and audio data are replaced with external video and audio data.
A disk apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention comprises;
an interface unit for receiving externally input video and audio data;
a data recording and reproducing unit for writing and reading the video and audio data received by the interface unit onto and from a disk; and
a video and audio data management unit for managing a recording area of the disk by dividing the recording area into a recorded area in which video and audio data have already been recorded and an unrecorded area in which no video and audio data is recorded.
In response to an external block erasure request, the video and audio data management unit erases an area requested to be erased from the recorded area, adds the area requested to be erased to the unrecorded area, and assigns continuous logical addresses to the video and audio data in the recorded area.
The disk apparatus according to the present invention structured as described above is capable of easily performing edit processing on recorded video and audio data even after a block is erased, in response to an external request, from the video and audio data recorded on the disk.
While the novel features of the invention are set forth particularly in the appended claims, the invention, both as to organization and content, will be better understood and appreciated, along with other objects and features thereof, from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings.